Let’s cut to the chase. Only one question matters: what kind of administration will we get after December 20, the day the ANC wraps up its elective conference? Will it be any better than the slothful, slovenly, divided and complacent lot we have now?

Barring a legal complication over the Phala Phala saga, President Cyril Ramaphosa will secure a second term as party head. His deputy will almost certainly be former Gauteng premier Paul Mashatile. The chemistry — or lack of it — between the two will be crucial to South Africa’s trajectory over the next two years. If they can work together as an energetic and focused unit, South Africa can achieve much. If they fail to do so, we will see a repeat of the failed, tentative, “unity at all costs” approach that Ramaphosa has adopted over the past five years. It has yielded little bounty for him or the country...

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